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Plastindia Interview Snippets – A Special Feature

- Roelof Westerbeek (President, DSM Engineering Plastics)

"India's rising middle class, increasing number of cars, increasing demand for lighter vehicles and growth in food packaging are all positive drivers for engineering plastics. At DSM Engineering Plastics, we have a clear strategy to capture the growth opportunities in India. Two-thirds or about 70 percent of our growth in the coming 5–10 years will come from the Asia Pacific region. Plastindia at Gandhinagar has been an interesting experience for us. Although we are quite impressed with the exhibition hall and the facilities provided, travel to and fro from hotels has been a bit more challenging.

Perhaps that is the reason why the number of visitors is slightly below expectations. Nevertheless, I am glad to have visited Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhinagar seems to be pretty clean, well-organized and well-run."

"The Indian polymers market is growing at very attractive rates; much higher than the GDP growth rate of the country. SABIC has always been committed to India and we have an all-around participation in the Indian market. The products that we manufacture in the Middle East are brought to India and with less than 4–5 days for shipping to the western coast of the country, India is almost our home market.

Plastindia is an international event having a strong presence not just in India but also across South Asia. It is the major event for participants from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and

Nepal. As such, we would have participated in Plastindia irrespective of where it was being held. The move from New Delhi to Gandhinagar is perhaps not such a bad thing as it lies in the heart of the plastics hub of the country. Holding the event at such short notice and at such standards is already a big achievement and it highlights the country's capability of delivering such exhibition centers and convention centers in a limited time. The brand new facility has come up very well, the quality of stalls that have been put up is excellent and the reception is very good. This year's event will hopefully spur the industry to the next level of growth."

"Being accustomed to Plastindia at New Delhi, I was a little skeptical when the event was moved to Gandhinagar. However, considering that almost half of the country's polymer consumption comes from the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra and after experiencing the facilities on offer here, I believe that Plastindia is here to stay. The falling naphtha prices have resulted in a drop in propylene prices and the price ratio between propylene and polypropylene has become highly attractive, and ideally OPaL should have entered the market by now. Indeed, there have been some delays but I am confident that the OPaL project will be commissioned in June-July 2015."

"There were indeed some concerns raised when Plastindia was moved from New Delhi to Gujarat at such short notice. However, the good thing about Gujarat is that it is pretty much the center of polymer conversion in India. There are a lot of machinery manufacturers and a lot of polymer converters present in the state of Gujarat, who are participating in Plastindia. Polymer converters usually visit plastics exhibitions to see and buy machinery and polymer producers like Borouge are here to attract the converters. So, after a slow start on the first day, the pace has picked up exponentially and we are very much pleased with the response.
There is a very positive feeling about India as a polymers market. Industry

leaders are showing a lot of confidence in Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. They are aware of what he has done for the economy of Gujarat and they would like to see him do the same for the economy of the country. Their confidence in him inspires confidence in all of us that the Indian market is really set for a growth phase. We are also watching the rapidly growing middle class of India. With the increased spending power, people are wanting to buy nicer goods, which is a great opportunity for companies like Borouge, as we have the high-quality materials required for such high-quality products."

- Lawrence Jones (VP Marketing Centre - Film & Fibre, Borouge)

- Sanjay Jain (Business Director, DSM Engineering Plastics India)

"Growth of the engineering plastics industry is usually at a multiple of two times the GDP growth of a country. Taking into account the promising economic outlook of India, we could be looking at a 10–14 percent growth rate for engineering plastics in the country. From that perspective, engineering plastics seems to be an attractive business to be in. Although the growth in the last five years has been slow, I can safely say that we are cautiously optimistic about the growth of the engineering plastics industry in the country."

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